Acer palmatum - branch dieback

Hello everyone,

I hope this is the right place to post. My husband bought me a large, beautiful Acer palmatum dissectum Seiryu for Christmas 2022. I chose it, and I knew it was risky - it was heavily discounted. Once it arrived and I tried to repot it I saw that it only had a tiny root system, so I placed it into a temporary container, smaller than the one I'd planned for it (I'd planned to give it the copper one in the picture).

The tree is in the most sheltered part of the garden. It's mostly in shade, though from about May it'll get a couple of hours of sun. It's potted in ericaceous john innes 3.

I saw today that although part of it is finally leafing out, the main stem looks awful - it looks like the bark has been stripped off (snails?), and there are black spots. I've attached some photos - one of the whole tree, one of the right hand side that's leafing out, one of the left hand main branch that looks diseased, and one of another branch on the left that also has some sort of wound (?).

Could this be Verticillium Wilt? Do I need to remove that whole half of the tree, or is it a goner? Are there any alternatives? Any advice would be brilliant, thanks so much for your help

 

I cannot see anything that says it is definitely VWilt. It is not unusual to get die back on Acers, just prune out any grey, obviously dead branches.
I would not give up on it yet.

 

Thank you @Punkdoc So would you class the branch in 3.jpeg grey/obviously dead, or shall I leave it?

 

I would leave it for now.

 

I'll do that. What a relief, it's such a beautiful tree. Thank you!